Viewing Inventory Normalization Insights

Important:Previously, IT Visibility provided an Inventory Normalization Statistics report (available at Data Collection > IT Visibility Inventory Status > Inventory Normalization Statistics). With Technology Intelligence Platform, this report is replaced by the Inventory Normalization Insights report (available at Data Collection > IT Visibility Inventory Status > Inventory Normalization Insights).

Inventory normalization insights give your greater understanding as to how hardware and software inventory has been normalized.

To view inventory normalization insights:

1. Go to the Inventory Normalization Insights page (Data Collection > IT Visibility Inventory Status > Inventory Normalization Insights).

The Inventory Normalization Insights page opens.

2. Click the Software Statistics, Hardware Statistics, or Normalization DQ Summary tab and review the following subsections for descriptions of these statistics:
• Hardware Normalization Statistics
• Software Normalization Statistics
• Normalization DQ Summary Statistics

Hardware Normalization Statistics

Click on the following UI buttons to view the Hardware Evidence page. This redirects to Inventory > IT Visibility Devices > Hardware Evidence page. Based on the evidence selected, the Hardware Evidence page displays a report filter with one of the following recognition statuses:

• All—Shows the Hardware Evidence page.
• Recognized to product—Displays the Hardware Evidence page filtered with only Recognized to product.
• Recognized to manufacturer—Displays the Hardware Evidence page filtered with only Recognized to manufacturer.
• Recognized to model—Displays the Hardware Evidence page filtered only with Recognized to model.
• Unrecognized—Displays the Hardware Evidence page filtered only with Unrecognized.

Statistic

Description

Per discovery source

Evidence count is the count of evidence (that is, the information collected from a system to detect the existence of the hardware) from each discovery source being ingested in the normalization process.

Total evidence count

This statistic is broken down by evidence type:

• Consolidated evidence indicates the evidence that is retained as a result of merging, consolidation or deduplication process amongst multiple evidence, which are used to recognize the exact same hardware.
• Duplicate evidence indicates the evidence that is not retained as a result of merging, consolidation or deduplication process because it is considered as a duplicate amongst multiple evidence, which are used to recognize the exact same hardware.

Consolidated inventory count

This statistic is broken down by recognition status:

• Recognized to model indicates that, out-of-the-box, the evidence is fully recognized (that is, associated with a Technopedia catalog entry) all the way to the hardware model level.
• Recognized to product indicates that, out-of-the-box, the evidence is only partially recognized to the hardware product level.
• Recognized to manufacturer indicates that, out-of-the-box, the evidence is only partially recognized to the manufacturer level.
• Unrecognized indicates that, out-of-the-box, the evidence is not recognized by the normalization process. Therefore, the evidence will go through the gap-fill process.

Inventory count

This statistic is broken down for reach recognition status by:

• Active is the count of hardware that is managed and taken into consideration when calculating the final inventory count for further downstream use-cases (such as license consumption calculation).
• Ignored is the count of hardware that is not taken into consideration when calculating the final inventory count for various reasons (for example, the hardware is being retired, disposed of, etc.).

Software Normalization Statistics

Click on the following UI buttons to view the Software Evidence page. This redirects to Applications & Evidence > IT Visibility Software > Software Evidence page. Based on the evidence selected, the Software Evidence page displays a report filter with one of the following recognition statuses:

• All—Shows the Software Evidence page.
• Unrecognized—Displays the Software Evidence page filtered with only Unrecognized evidence.
• Irrelevant—Displays the Software Evidence page filtered with only Irrelevant evidence.
• Active—Displays the Software Evidence page filtered with only Active evidence.

Statistic

Description

Per discovery source

Evidence count is the count of evidence (that is, the information collected from a system to detect the existence of the software) from each discovery source being ingested in the normalization process.

Total evidence count

This statistic is broken down by evidence type:

• Installer evidence indicates the evidence collected from a local (device-based) list of installed software, such as Add/Remove Programs or MSI.
• File evidence indicates evidence in the form of a file that is found on a computer—it may simply be the name of the file, or the information found within the file (such as with ISO-compliant software identification [SWID] tags).

Note the following:

• While software recognized by file evidence is available in IT Visibility, statistics on file evidence are not yet available.
• To establish accurate software inventory recognition, IT Visibility retrieves mappings from both the Application Recognition Library (ARL) and the Technopedia library. Non-executable (for example, .sys, .swtag, .swidtag files) mappings primarily come from ARL, while executable (for example, .exe files) mappings come from both ARL and Technopedia.
• Other evidence indicates evidence other than installer or file evidence. This currently includes all evidence used to recognize operating systems, including OS-related WMI evidence, OS evidence from third-party discovery systems, and OS evidence from commands such as os-release on Linux, sw_vers on MacOS, and uname on other Unix systems.

Installer Evidence count

This statistic is broken down by recognition status:

• Recognized indicates that, out-of-the-box, the evidence is recognized (that is, associated with a Technopedia catalog entry) to either the software release level or the software product level.
• Unrecognized indicates that, out-of-the-box, the evidence is not recognized by the normalization process. Therefore, the evidence will go through the gap-fill process.

Recognized evidence count

This statistic is broken down for reach recognition status by:

• Consolidated evidence indicates that the evidence is retained as a result of merging, consolidation or deduplication process amongst multiple evidence, which are used to recognize the exact same software.
• Duplicate evidence indicates that the evidence is not retained as a result of merging, consolidation or deduplication process because it is considered as a duplicate amongst multiple evidence, which are used to recognize the exact same software.
• Irrelevant evidence indicates that the evidence has been recognized as not having any value to the customer (for example, it’s a device firmware, a driver, a miscellaneous application add-on, plugin or other negligible files, etc.). Therefore, the evidence is separated out from the calculation of the software install count.

Consolidated evidence

This statistic identifies software that is installed in the inventory and is broken down by:

• Active is the count of software that is detected on an active hardware. Therefore this evidence is taken into consideration for further downstream use-cases (such as license consumption calculations).
• Ignored is the count of software that is detected on an ignored hardware.

Normalization DQ Summary Statistics

The following table provides a detailed view of data quality and normalization status for both hardware and software assets.

Statistic

Description

Hardware Normalization Status

Identifies how the hardware is recognized. This statistic is broken down by recognition status:

• Recognized to Model indicates that the device is fully recognized to the hardware model level.
• Recognized to Product indicates that the device is only partially recognized, to the hardware product level.
• Recognized to Manufacturer indicates that the device is only partially recognized, to the manufacturer level.
• Unrecognized indicates that the device is not recognized by the normalization process.

Software Normalization Status

Displays the count of product and release.

Hardware Normalization Recognition Details

Provides an overview of each device’s recognition status, allowing for filtering by Evidence Manufacturer, Evidence Name, Technopedia Manufacturer, Technopedia Product, Technopedia Model, Data Source, Last Inventory Date, Model Lifecycle Stage, and Devices.

Hardware Normalization Recognition By Manufacturer

Provides insight into the number of devices per manufacturer which are Recognized to Manufacturer, Recognized to Model, Recognized to Product, or Unrecognized.

Hardware Normalization Recognition by Domain

Provides insight into the number of devices per domain which are Recognized to Manufacturer, Recognized to Model, Recognized to Product, or Unrecognized.

Hardware Normalization Recognition by Device Location

Provides insight into the number of devices per location which are Recognized to Manufacturer, Recognized to Model, Recognized to Product or Unrecognized.

Hardware Normalization Recognition by Business Unit

Provides insight into the number of devices per business unit which are Recognized to Manufacturer, Recognized to Model, Recognized to Product or Unrecognized.

Hardware Data Source Types by Device by Inventory Date

Provides an overview the number of devices for each data source type, allowing you to filter by inventory date.

Last Hardware Inventory Timeline

Provides an overview on every inventory by date, with insights on how many devices, manufacturers, products, and models were inventoried on said date.

Hardware Not Inventoried in Last 60 Days

Provides an overview of devices that haven’t been inventoried in the past 60 days, including domain, inventory agent and last inventory date.

DQ - Duplicate Machine Names

Provides insight into device names that are duplicates and have been used more than once, with information on how many devices, installs, and domains are associated with each duplicate machine name.

DQ - Duplicate Serial Numbers

Provides insight into serial numbers that are duplicates and have been used more than once, with information on how many devices, installs and domains are associated with each duplicate serial number.

DQ - Device with Missing Serial Number

Provides an overview on which devices have a missing serial number, with details for each device’s Subcategory, Manufacturer, Product, Model, Business Unit, Location, and Lifecycle stage.

Last Software Record Processing Timelines

Provides an insight on all updates done on software products, versions, and installs.

Software Installs by Category

Provides an overview of the number of software installs there for each software category.

Software Installs by Domain

Provides an overview of the number of software installs for each domain.